Rising US-China tensions are having far-reaching ramifications across the international order, stirring up problems not only for western powers, but also for smaller states falling into regions of influence. This includes the Gulf countries, which are increasingly squeezed between the competitive pressure of these great powers. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,…
Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. The controversial peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has two fathers already – US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser on the Middle East, Jared Kushner, slyly claims to be a third father. Trump and…
China is contemplating greater political engagement in the Middle East in what would constitute a break with its longstanding effort to avoid being sucked into the region’s myriad conflicts and a bid to counter mounting US pressure to force Gulf states to curtail relations with the People’s Republic. Prominent Chinese scholars, close to the government…
The Egyptian Parliament’s approval of their military’s possible deployment to Libya following the request for such support by the war-torn country’s largely unrecognized eastern-based parliament in Tobruk has sparked heated discussions about Cairo leading the GCC+’s proxy war against Turkey in that theater, but there are very serious limitations that the Egyptian military would inevitably…
The Alt-Media Community simply can’t make sense out of the fact that Iran and Syria now officially support opposite sides in Libya since it completely contradicts the long-running but factually false narrative that these two Resistance allies are always on the same side out of “ideological solidarity” with one another. *** Alt-Media = Alt-Reality It’s…
The Trump administration’s quest to curb relationships between its allies in the Middle East and China offers a preview of how big power rivalry in the region is likely to unfold. It also suggests the limits on the United States’ ability to reduce its commitment to regional security. While much of the focus in recent…
